


Meeting Out of Order

by TheScholarlyStrumpet (equipoise)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bisexual Clara, F/F, F/M, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 14:28:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5294678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equipoise/pseuds/TheScholarlyStrumpet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clara and The Doctor. Jane Austen. Timey-wimey things. </p><p>Set somewhere between Last Christmas and Magician's Apprentice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting Out of Order

“Okay, I’ll do the talking this time, right?” Clara straightened her skirts and looked pointedly at The Doctor as she rapped on the door with the silver knocker.

Still fiddling with the beeping gadget in his hand, he made a half-hearted sound of agreement.

“Doctor,” she said firmly.

He looked up. “Yes, alright, fine. But I don’t see how I was supposed to know they were in mourning. They should put up a sign.”

Clara heaved a fond but exasperated sigh. “The door knocker was covered in a black cloth. It was a custom around this time.”

“So, they might have eccentric decorating tastes.”

“And the whole family was dressed in black,” she added.

“So am I,” he pointed out.

She had to concede that one. He looked quite dashing in it, actually. Not that she ought to notice that. They practically lived together for days at a time, now, but he still kept so much distance between them. She knew they cared for one another but he didn’t seem very keen on any physical expression of that, beyond hugging. They did still do the hugging. Not as often as she’d have liked, but it was something to get her through the lonely nights. She knew the timing was not ideal for what she really wanted (what she had always wanted, now that she was being a bit more honest with herself). Perhaps it never would be.

Still, she thought as she eyed him peripherally, The Doctor did cut a fine figure in Regency dress. And there was no harm in merely looking. She was rather glad she’d been able to talk him into a costume change, just this once. Even if he was still wearing the magician jacket atop it.

“Anyway, at least now we can also be reasonably sure that whatever sent that signal did not land near the graveyard,” he concluded, resuming his interest in the detection unit he’d built for the occasion, out of spare parts from previous invention. Apparently, it went _ding_ when there was stuff, but other than that Clara was reasonably certain it was just a fancy distraction. But it had gone ding as soon as they reached the property line for this house. So, they were reasonably sure there would be… stuff.

“Next time ‘round, I’m making you cue cards…” Clara muttered, snatching the device from his grasp and tucking it into her reticule just as the door was opening. And then she caught sight of the face on the other side and her mouth dropped open.

“Oh my God,” Clara breathed. “You’re Jane Austen.”

The woman at the door gave a crooked grin. “Who else would I be?” She made a gesture to welcome them in, standing back from the door.

Clara gaped as she crossed the threshold, her mouth opening and closing with no sound escaping. She looked at The Doctor and then back at Jane. She gripped the Doctor’s arm as she tried to process the moment. It wasn’t everyday one met a personal literary hero, even when one travelled with the Doctor.  “Jane. Bloody. Austen.”

“Yes, I think we’ve established that,” he said, peevishly.

Jane pursed her lips on a smile and closed the door behind them. “Oh, come along now, Clara. What game are we playing this time?”

At that, even the Doctor looked slightly taken aback. He and Clara exchanged glances.

Clara blinked incredulously. “You know me?”

Jane laughed. “Of course I do, silly thing. How could one ever forget Clara Oswald? And The Doctor, of course. How has the Universe been treating you?” She nodded toward him, her gaze flicking to his face and then back to Clara’s stunned expression. Her brow furrowed. “Is this not a jest? How is that, then?”

Clara touched her hand to her mouth and shook her head. “Sorry, um, we don’t always… I mean time and with the travelling… It’s not… timelines.” Her cheeks were going hot as she struggled to get the words out.

“What she means to say,” The Doctor interrupted, “is that we don’t always meet people in the right order.”

“Right,” Clara agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. “And I’m the one who’s not supposed to speak?”

She felt herself flush even more furiously, “Oh shut up, you.”

Jane, looking exceedingly amused with the whole exchange, clapped her hands together. “So, if you’re not here for a social call, to what do I owe the pleasure, my dear friend?”

“Oh, there’s some sort of alien technology nearby sending out a signal. The Tardis picked it up, so we’re just here to investigate,” Clara supplied, cheerfully. Finally, some familiar ground.

“Well, I can’t say I’ve seen anything particularly unusual – apart from the two of you,” Jane winked at her and Clara had to fight the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl. “But please feel free to explore the house as much as you like. I’m the only one home today and I certainly don’t mind.  And, ehm… how does some tea sound? I’ve only just put the kettle on.”  

“That won’t be necessary,” The Doctor answered just as Clara was saying:

“Oh, tea would be lovely.”

After a brief moment’s standoff between them, Jane went to the kitchen to fetch a tea tray. She directed them to the sitting room along the way.

The Doctor pulled Clara aside. “The thing. We have a thing to find. The device went ding.”

“Yeah, but you said yourself it’s probably not a dangerous thing. Just don’t want it ending up on the black market somewhere.” Clara indicated the direction Jane had gone with a tilt of her head. “Doctor… Jane Austen just asked me to tea. I quite literally wrote a short story about that in First Form but I never thought it could actually happen! I love a good alien tech hunt as much as the next person but…” she bit her lower lip to keep from squealing, “Jane Austen just asked me to tea!” She looked up at him, pleadingly.

His jaw worked visibly above his cravat, tightening and releasing. Finally, his lips curved into an indulgent smile. “Yeah, fine. I’ll have a look around. You enjoy your tea.”

Clara beamed at him and handed over the device from her bag.

Jane returned just as The Doctor was heading out. They nodded politely at one another and Clara sat down on the loveseat, giddy with her good fortune.

With a grin, Jane sat beside her, sliding close and covering one of Clara’s hands with her own. “Oh, it is good to see you, Clara… I’ve missed you.” Jane leaned in and pecked her lightly on the lips.

Clara’s eyes widened and she swallowed. “We really are quite well acquainted, aren’t we?”

Jane giggled. “That we are. Although, this twisted timeline does explain how you acted the first time you kissed me…”

“What happened?”

“Well, it was before I lived here. I was checking on the laundry when you popped out from behind a sheet and nearly frightened me half to death! I fell over backwards and you helped me up. And when you apologized, you pressed your lips to mine. I was so very surprised, I nearly fell over again. And you said ‘Oh! I forgot it was the first’. I never knew what you meant by that until now.” Jane cupped Clara’s cheek with her free hand and kissed her once more, lingering just a little longer this time. She pulled away with a smile. “Now, tell me more about all your latest marvelous adventures – and spare no detail!”

***

As it turned out, it was a Silurian Nav transmitter stuck between two high branches of a tree at the back of Jane’s rented property. Broken, probably tossed away as so much space trash. The Doctor returned triumphant, if a bit worse for wear after having scaled a tree, to the sounds of girlish giggles.

Cozied up on the settee, Clara was chattering away with her new old friend as he rounded the corner into the sitting room. They clearly hadn’t heard him approach and he stopped in his tracks for a moment, afraid he was interrupting something. The scene had a feeling of intimacy that made him instantly uncomfortable.

Since Christmas, he had been keeping Clara and himself quite busy. Clara had a small room aboard the Tardis and he liked to think she spent more time there than in her own flat, now. And it was all he’d ever really wanted from her. Her smiles and her friendship, those ever expanding eyes and a world of questions still to be answered in her head. Her companionship.

And yet, seeing her like this, so unguarded, her cheeks pink with laughter and the taint of human pheromones in the air…

The Doctor grit his teeth and shut out that thought, as he had so many times before. Clara Oswald was his but she wasn’t. She could belong to anyone she chose, in any manner that made her happy. All that mattered, in the end, was that every Wednesday, she found her little booted feet leading her back onto the Tardis. Because he needed her with him. The way that humans needed oxygen. Or at least that’s how it felt, sometimes. One look from her and both his hearts felt stronger.

Some part of him didn’t like her sharing those kinds of looks with anyone else. He’d thought he was past that, but apparently not.

He barged into the room, waving the nav transmitter. “Found it. Apocalypse averted.”

The conversation stopped abruptly as both sets of eyes came to rest on him, small round faces upturned.

 “Oh, good. Glad that’s done. “ Clara leapt to her feet. “Doctor, I was thinking perhaps we could take Jane on a trip? Apparently we never have before.”

He eyed the two of them warily. “The Tardis isn’t a tourist attraction, Clara.”

Clara approached him, lips in a charming little moue, hands on her slim hips. “Oh stop it. You do it all the time.” She tilted her head to the side and smiled sweetly and he knew that in a minute his resolve would break. “Let me show her the stars? Just this once?” she whispered, her teeth sinking into her plump lower lip in that way he found entirely too distracting.

Inwardly he sighed, he could deny her nothing and some part of her knew that. He turned to Jane with as sincere a smile as he could muster. “Do you have a favorite constellation?”

Before he knew it, they were all three bustling off to the Tardis. Jane was suitably impressed with the dimensions and stood in awe as they opened the door onto the vastness of space. For several long moments, Jane said nothing, just staring at the stars. When she turned back to face them, there were tears in her eyes.

Clara wrapped an arm around the other girl’s shoulders. “Jane, what’s wrong?”

Jane shook her head and buried her face in Clara’s neck. “It’s beautiful,” she murmured.

The Doctor busied himself at the console, feeling very much the outsider. Eventually, they landed back in Bath. Jane thanked him profusely for the opportunity and he wished her luck with her writing. The women said their goodbyes quietly. The Doctor glanced away as they shared a parting kiss. His hearts gave a painful twinge and he wondered, for just a moment, what life might be like if he’d regenerated as a Time Lady rather than a cranky Scotsman.

With a silent huff of irritation, he turned his full attention to the console. Where might Clara like to go next? It had been a while since they saved a planet, surely he could find someone in crisis. And then it would be back to normal. Her hand in his as they ran for their lives. And all could be right with his world once more.

 


End file.
